Ledesma fire, October 2025 Ledesma
The fire started on 14 October 2025 in Ledesma, Argentina, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,965 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 9th largest in Jujuy since 2016 (of 21 with a page). Number 62 in Argentina in 2025, of 206.
- Burnt area
- 2,965ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 4days
- 14 Oct 2025 – 17 Oct 2025
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- departments
- Started on
- 14 Oct
- 2025
- Heat detections
- 169
- in a single hotspot: 41 MW
- Danger at start
- 52
- Extreme · FWI index
- Energy released
- 2.2GW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone 13 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 40.7 mm on 18 Oct.
This area had burned before
96% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,518 ha in 2020, 1,639 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,844 ha that had burned before.
- 2,518 ha Ledesma fire, October 2020 16,641 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,612 ha Ledesma fire, September 2022 8,998 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 27 ha Ledesma fire, November 2022 6,282 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Ledesma where it started2,977 ha reached on 14 Oct1.0 %
Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance is from the town centre to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.
The weather day by day
ECMWF ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, the standard reference for past weather, and the Canadian Fire Weather Index (the same system Copernicus uses), computed by WorldFires from that data. Days after the fire run until the first rain.
Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)
| Day | High | Min. humidity | Peak gust | Rain | Danger (FWI) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 14 Oct | 34.2 °C | 19 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 15 Oct | 36.0 °C | 25 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 16 Oct | 41.2 °C | 18 % | 22 km/h | 0.2 mm | Very high 44 |
| 17 Oct | 34.6 °C | 39 % | 23 km/h | 2.5 mm | Moderate 13 |
| 18 Oct after | 23.6 °C | 68 % | 30 km/h | 40.7 mm | Very low 0 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 16 October 2025 the air beside the fire reached 80 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 53: 3.5 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.
Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)
Detections table · 169Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 16,641 haLedesma6 October 2020 · 18 days · 4 km away
- 8,998 haLedesmaSeptember 2022 · 14 days · 6 km away
- 6,282 haLedesma7 November 2022 · 14 days · 6 km away
- 4,375 haSanta BárbaraOctober 2021 · 10 days · 9 km away
- 4,556 haLedesma24 November 2022 · 7 days · 14 km away
- 4,565 haSanta Bárbara2 November 2020 · 8 days · 20 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Ledesma fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 14 October 2025 and 17 October 2025: 4 days between the first and last heat detection of the perimeter.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 2,965 hectares (29.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Ledesma (2,977 ha, 1.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 41.2 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 52, class Extreme.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Argentina (geoBoundaries). It is not an official report.
Where to verify it
A satellite detection is not an official report. Final figures and the fire’s status are published by each country’s emergency service.
Emergency number: 911 · 100
Satellite cross-check
Does something look wrong on this page?
This page is built from satellite data and official records, and it sometimes gets things wrong: the wrong dates, the wrong town, two fires merged into one, or something that was not a wildfire at all. If you know this fire first-hand (you live nearby, saw it, fought it or reported on it), tell us what really happened and we will check it.
Report an error
Where this data comes from
The perimeter comes from the Copernicus Global Wildfire Information System (GWIS), which rebuilds it from MODIS and VIIRS heat detections and publishes it under CC BY 4.0. It is not measured on imagery as in Europe, so it is an estimate. Heat detections come from the VIIRS sensors aboard Suomi-NPP and NOAA-20, distributed by NASA FIRMS at 375 m resolution. Municipal boundaries come from geoBoundaries ADM2 (Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Intergovernmental Organisations (CC BY 3.0 IGO)). The area per municipality is computed by WorldFires by crossing the perimeter with those boundaries, so it may differ from each country’s official figure.